The history of slot machines as amusement devices dates back to 1897 when Charlie Fey, a car mechanic from San Francisco, invented “Liberty Bell”. He used it to entertain his customers while they were waiting for their cars being repaired at his shop. Several new companies, by making mechanical slot machines with similar design, gave the birth of a new fast growing industry. But the gambling aspect of these gambling primates was limited due to the physical limitation on the number of symbols and fairly easiness to cheat, therefore the rather small jackpots.
In 1964 the slot machines turned into a business device also. By replacing the mechanical parts of the slot machine with electronic parts Bally Manufacturing added two more dimensions to slot machines: the coins in and coins out. Unlike their mechanical counterparts the computers were no subject to wear and tear. The results from their operation became highly reliable and predictable. From fringe pastime offering placed around the edges of the casinos for the companions of the gamblers while they were playing at the tables, the slot machines were moved to the center of the casino. By the mid 70's they dominated the casinos by generating about three quarters of the casino revenue.
Video poker became very popular as a slot game in the late 70's. The dimension of the optimal play was added. Players were able to make decisions and chose among different alternative strategies. Its popularity grew so much in the early 90's that earned it the name the “America's National Game of Chance”.
The progressive systems in the 80's added another dimension to the slot machines by virtually linking many slot machines very often in different casinos and physical areas into one common pool. By playing at any one of these slot machines the players were contributing a dismal portion of their bet into a jackpot with unperceivable before size and were competing for it. The technological innovations in the computer science elevated the physical restriction in the size of the reels and provided analyses on the outcomes by computer simulation.
The design of the multi-game in the early 90's gave the player the ability to choose among different games at the same slot machines and added multiple dimensions to the slot machines. Now the same slot machine was also a poker machine, a keno machine, you name it. The slot machine was turned into a virtual multidimensional gaming device.
By linking two consecutive games into one game the bonus games added yet another equation to the problem. Now the slot machines are linked both in space and time.
The Indian gaming expanded the social dimension to the slot machines on a national scale. Now not just Nevada but the whole nation uses the slot machine as tool to aggregate disposable income and allocates it to solve community issues.